Séminaire ReSIC 2025-26 : Critical discourse studies and studies of the imaginary: pathways for the future exploration of imaginaries

This session will not be a presentation but a feedback session on a text. Jan Zienkowski would like to receive critical feedback on the structure of the chapter, the general thrust of the article, any gaps (authors, approaches, studies, etc.), and the identification of any redundant or overly long sections. Any other criticism is of course welcome.

This chapter discusses how imaginaries and the imaginary have been approached in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and in the emerging field of Studies of the Imaginary (SI). Its author distinguishes theories that approach the imaginary as an ontological principle from research that focuses on historically specific imaginaires. He identifies four ontological functions attributed to the imaginary by thinkers such as Althusser, Ricoeur, Castoriadis, Lefort, Laclau and Mouffe: (1) the grounding of a sense of reality; (2) the enabling of creativity and the possibility of autonomy; (3) the dissimulation of social conflict; and (4) the transgression of established imaginaries. The ontic features of historically specific imaginaries have been explored and theorized by scholars of discourse, culture and society across the social sciencs and humanities. Studies have explored how socio-political, socio-technical, economic and cultural imaginaries offer visions of and for past, present and future societies.

The transdisciplinary field of CDS offers theories and methods suited for the investigation of the ontological functions as well as the ontic articulations of the imaginaries that shape our worlds. Imaginaries can thereby be thought of as ontologically instable assemblages held together by linguistic and non-linguistic means. Imaginaries grip and shape socio-material reality through concrete language use, symbolic practices and institutions. They can therefore be understood as interpretative, ideological and ontological functions of discourse.

Participants are therefore asked to read the text (link to the document) before attending the session.